Trump Adviser Calls for Downsizing EPA, Overhauling Its Science

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"If the Trump administration is serious about keeping Trump’s promises, they will have to reform the use of science," said Ebell, the director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a public policy organization that advocates limited government.

Ebell’s remarks come amid mounting concerns that the Trump administration is eliminating scientific data and has restricted the external communication of agency staff.

By revisiting the science that underpins a swath of environmental rules -- including those governing ozone and mercury pollution -- the EPA can begin to undo them, Ebell said.

"The way to clear the air about what the EPA is doing -- and what the state of our environment is -- is to reform the use of science so they have to use publicly available studies that can be replicated, that can be criticized," he said. "Then we’ll find out the condition of the environment was a whole lot better than we’ve been told."

He singled out a stringent new smog standard imposed under President Barack Obama limiting ground-level ozone pollution to 70 parts per billion, down from the Bush-era level of 75 parts per billion. There is no public health distinction between those two levels, but the economic impacts are enormous, Ebell said.

"I think we need to look at the costs of these regulations and the health benefits of destroying jobs," Ebell said.